On Monday President Obama announced EPA's new safeguards to clean up America's power plants, putting an end to the era of unlimited coal plant pollution. Within hours, the air was filled with complaints that the standard is too tough on states where coal dominates the power market.

Over the past year the Big 3 of the US coal industry (Peabody Energy, Arch Coal, and Alpha Natural) have seen their combined market cap fall from $6bln to $350mln and their funding rates soar from 8% to 65%.